NCAA, power conferences agree on antitrust case

The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC issued a joint statement Thursday evening announcing the potentially monumental decision, calling it “an important step in the ongoing reform of college sports that will benefit student-athletes and provide clarity in athletics university in all divisions for the coming years.

The settlement will cost college conferences more than $2.75 billion in damages, according to a statement from Hagens Berman and Winston & Strawn LLP, the firm representing the athletes.

A price that will be shared with smaller conferences, many of which reportedly opposed the settlement, noting that they were not named in the House v. NCAA class action lawsuit, although the Power Five conferences were.

The lawsuit, brought by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House and TCU basketball player Sedona Price, alleged that the NCAA and Power Five conferences illegally prevented college athletes from earning money from endorsements.

The settlement, which also includes two other ongoing lawsuits, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA, will allow schools to share up to 22% of a Power Five school’s average revenue with athletes.

“This landmark agreement will bring college sports into the 21st century, and college athletes will finally be able to receive their fair share of the billions of dollars in revenue they generate for their schools,” said Steve W. Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman. “Our clients are the backbone of the NCAA’s multi-billion dollar business and can finally be fairly compensated for their extraordinary athletic talents.”

In 2021, the NCAA changed its policy to allow athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness. The result was an uneven and largely unregulated landscape as different schools navigated the new reality in conjunction with the regulations in their particular state.

Since then, schools and conferences have asked the U.S. Congress for guidance on regulating the NIL boundary. Thursday’s settlement did not silence these conversations.

“To save America’s great institution of college sports, Congress must pass legislation that preempts the current patchwork of state laws; establish that our athletes are not employees but degree-seeking students; and we will provide protection from further antitrust lawsuits that will enable universities to create and enforce policies that will protect our student-athletes and help ensure competitive equity among our teams,” outgoing Notre Dame president the Rev. John Jenkins said in a statement about the settlement.

Time will tell what the new model will look like, and its format may depend largely on whether college athletes will be considered employees in the future. Currently they are not.

“This agreement also provides a roadmap for college athletic leaders and Congress to ensure that this uniquely American institution continues to provide unparalleled opportunities for millions of students,” the conference said in a joint statement. “The entire Division I made today’s progress possible, and we all have work to do to implement the terms of the agreement as the legal process continues.”

Where the schools will get the money to pay for the settlement is a question that will loom large on campuses in the coming months and years. According to the Associated Press, the settlement is expected to be repaid within 10 years.

“It’s a work in progress,” Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock told The Times-Dispatch last week during the ACC’s annual spring meetings on Amelia Island, Florida. “We are working with the university president, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and general counsel on Virginia Law (NIL) and potential modeling of the House of Representatives settlement beginning in the fall of ’25.”

It’s also unclear how Title IX, a long-standing gender equality law, will come into effect. Must future payments to athletes under the revenue-sharing model be evenly split between men and women, or will revenue sharing be based on how much revenue each sport actually generates for the school?

“We haven’t had enough conversations about this,” Virginia athletics director Carla Williams told Virginia athletics director Carla Williams last week during league meetings. “But I can say that we are committed to Title IX and gender equality, as we always have been. “That won’t change in athletics or in college.”

Ultimately, the Title IX issue will likely be decided by the courts.

What’s clear is that the settlement signals the end of the NCAA’s old way of doing business, a reality that schools and conferences have been preparing for for some time.

Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist David Teel contributed to this report.